Ludovico Settala Explained

Honorific Prefix:Doctor
Ludovico Settala
Birth Date:27 February 1552
Birth Place:Milan, Duchy of Milan
Death Place:Milan, Duchy of Milan
Nationality:Italian
Occupation:Physician, philosopher, renaissance humanist
Fields:Public health
Resting Place:San Nazaro in Brolo
Alma Mater:University of Pavia
Parents:Francesco Settala and Giulia Settala (née Ripa)
Spouse:Angela Arona
Children:Manfredo Settala
Known For:his role in controlling the Great Plague of Milan of 1629–1631

Ludovico Settala (pronounced as /it/; also known by his Latin name of Ludovicus Septalius; 27 February 1552 – 12 September 1633) was an Italian physician who lived during the Renaissance.

Biography

Ludovico Settala was born in Milan on February 27, 1552, the son of Francesco Settala and Giulia Ripa. He studied the humanities with Antonio Maria Venosta and philosophy at the Jesuit school in his native city. At the early age of 16 he submitted his graduation thesis. He then enrolled in the University of Pavia where he studied medicine under Paolo Cigalini, a student of Gabriele Falloppio. After obtaining a doctorate in philosophy and medicine in 1573, he began writing on some contradictory passages in Hippocrates and Galen, but this work was interrupted when he was appointed professor of clinical medicine at the University of Pavia. Three years later he resigned his professorship to devote himself entirely to medical practice in Milan. When in 1576 an epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in Milan, Settala played a leading part in fighting the disease and in aiding its victims. He put his experience of the 1576 plague to good use in his treatise De peste et pestiferis affectibus printed in 1622.[1]

He attained to such renown that Philip III of Spain offered him a post as historiographer, and he was tendered professorships at Ingolstadt, Pisa, Bologna, and Padua, all of which honors he refused.[2] From 1605 onward he taught moral and political philosophy in the municipal Scuole Canobiane. In 1627, Settala was nominated by Philip IV to the post of physician-general to the Duchy of Milan. Settala was honored by Alessandro Manzoni in chapter thirty-one of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed, 1827), as “one of the most active and intrepid doctors” during the terrible days of the Great Plague of Milan.[3] During the plague he was himself struck down and subsequently suffered a stroke that left him paralysed on one side of the body. He died in Milan at the age of 81, on September 12, 1633, and was buried in the church of San Nazaro in Brolo.

Settala had established a cabinet of curiosities in his palace on the Via Pantano in Milan.[4] It encompassed the full range of the fine arts and numismatics, a small collection of medicinal plants and related materials, and a comprehensive library of rare books and manuscripts. After his death his son Manfredo took charge of the collection and became one of the great collectors of seventeenth-century Europe.[5]

Works

A prolific writer, Settala's chief works are Animadversionum et cautionum medicarum libri IX (1614), the result of 40 years of practice, which went through several editions, and De peste et pestiferis adfectibus (1622). He also wrote on moles and nevi (1606) and spoke of the sympathetic relation between the skin of the face and the rest of the body. Settala's 1,200-page commentary on Aristotle's Problemata was one of 1,500 books in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne.[6]

List of works

Notes

  1. .
  2. .
  3. Book: I promessi sposi storia milanese del secolo XVII, scoperta e rifatta da Alessandro Manzoni. 1840. dalla Tipografia Guglielmini e Redaelli. Milan. 585.
  4. Book: Bedini, Silvio A.. Science and instruments in seventeenth-century Italy. Silvio A. Bedini. 1994. LI. Variorum. 9780860784425.
  5. Book: Simmons, John E.. Museums. A History. 2016. 9781442263635. Rowman & Littlefield. 117.
  6. Yost . George . 1965 . Sir Thomas Browne and Aristotle . Studies in Sir Thomas Browne . University of Oregon . 55 . 9780871140111.

Bibliography

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ludovico Settala".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.